Bartender's Hours

Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve - J K Rowling 

Working in a bar and restaurant can be a lot of fun, even though the hours can be extremely unsocial! I really do enjoy the busyness of it all. There's almost always someone to talk to, be it customer or colleague. At Travelodge we have regulars who end up staying with us for several months at a time due to working in the area and their employers put them up with us. There are a few people, when they walk in, I know what they'll be drinking and will occasionally start pouring it for them, though I do prefer to double check, just in case they change their mind (which doesn't really happen). Most people are creatures of habit, I discovered. If you find something that works, you tend to stick to it. I know because I'm one of these people. I like my odd pint Guinness, and on the odd occasion, I like my mixers and, most importantly, my coffee. 

I've had some incredible conversations with people when they've passed through, as we have a lot of holiday makers staying with us the night before they travel to their holiday locations, be it in Tenerife, the Caribbean, Las Vegas, Nevada or Disneyland and Universal Studios, Florida, USA. The airlines put their cabin crews up with us, so I've been able to have some interesting conversations with them about their work. Norwegian Air has quite a few Dutch pilots and often I'll hear the accent or see the surname (cabin crew get 20% on everything and when they show me their crew badge I'll see the name), so I'll start talking to them in Dutch, much to their surprise. We also have holiday makers of all ages come and stay with us before flying off on their vacation. Its been fun to realise that a lot of people will start their holiday with us, so we've had a few people buying drinks they don't usually buy (like going for a double shot of gin with their tonic, rather than a single shot). We also get people staying with us who have been delayed, or have missed their flights. I often feel really sorry for these people because they've often had such a rough day. We get people who have come to England to visit, from Europe, the USA and beyond, and are staying with us before flying home. I love asking people where they're from or, if they're English, where what brings them to Travelodge. Its a conversation starter and it brings a lot of pleasure to me hearing about where people are traveling to.

Over the last few weeks, I've also been doing a mix of working on the floor, cleaning tables, etc, and working behind the bar. This has been because the management have been training one of the younger member of staff on the bar, and they'd like me to learn the ropes of how the entire bar and café works at this particular hotel. Something you might want to learn about Travelodge Gatwick Central is that its one of the largest in England and can easily sleep around 600 to 800 guests a night, if not more. Most of the other Travelodge hotels across the country are a lot smaller than the one I work for (many sleep around 100 to 300 guests a night). Some don't even have a restaurant on site. We're also one of the flagship hotels, so if the head office are going to try something out they'll ask my hotel to trial it for them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Over the last few weeks I've been working a lot of evening shifts (1500-2300; 3pm to 11pm). For those of you who don't know me well, you probably don't know that I'm an evening person. So working in a bar is basically the perfect job for the night owl that I am (I will write a post on this later on). My body has adjust really fast to the hours I am now keeping. I'm not often home until around midnight (depending on the bus I get home) and I usually wake up when Andy leaves for work himself. A few people have asked if I feel safe traveling home so late at night, and to be honest, I've never had any issue to fear. I've sometimes walked to another bus stop to catch bus 20, rather than the 100 that stops on the main road outside the hotel, just depends on if I can be bothered to wait about 30 minutes for it.

I enjoy my job. I enjoy being able to forge relationships with my colleagues and some of the guests. Some of our guests end up staying for several weeks, or months, due to working in the area and living in another part of the country, so their employers pay for their board at the hotel.

And until next time!